When they set out to trick-or-treat tomorrow night, many kids will be looking for teal colored pumpkins, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Dr. Patricia Gomez Dinger, an allergist at Advanced Allergy of San Antonio, tells News Radio 1200 WOAI's Megan Bishop that the Teal Pumpkin Project has begun an effort to encourage families to place the blue-ish pumpkins on the porch, to tell children with food allergies that they will be able to get treats that the don't have to be afraid of.
"Anyone who wants to participate with the teal colored pumpkin on their porch, and have non food items to give to children on Halloween, allows them to celebrate and have fun safely, without having the fear that the food is going to contain something they're allergic to," Dr. Dinger said.
The Project says the most common food allergies are nuts, milk, and eggs, and nearly every 'goodie' that is given away to little zombies and monsters on Halloween contains those materials in some fashion.
She says because of that, home participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project are encouraged to hand out something that is not edible to the little kids.
"They have all kinds of little baskets with all kinds of little toys, bracelets and slinkys, all sort of things that they can play with that isn't food," she said.
She says the Teal Pumpkin Project even sells ready made teal pumpkins, if you don't feel like painting your gourd.
Dr. Dinger says food allergies are most common among children, the very people who will be looking for candy tomorrow night."
Only 20% of kids will outgrow a peanut allergy," she said. "But when its milk or soy or wheat, there is an 80% chance that you will outgrow those."
An estimated 1.3 million children in the U.S. suffer from some level of food allergy, and in many cases, especially with nuts, eating, and in some cases even smelling nuts could cause death.
The Teal Pumpkin Project was started by a group of parents who were concerned that their kids couldn't enjoy trick-or-treating because they can't eat the foods that most families hand out.
For a list of homes near you participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project, click here:
https://www.foodallergy.org/education-awareness/teal-pumpkin-project/map